LOS COMUNEROS DEL BOSQUE MESÓFILO MEXICANO EVALÚAN UNA DÉCADA DE PAGOS POR SERVICIOS AMBIENTALES: LA IMPORTANCIA DE LA SOBERANÍA INDÍGENA EN LOS PROGRAMAS DE CONSERVACIÓN.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have taken a variety of forms that depend on many mediating factors, such as national and local politics, land tenure, regional collective action, the capacity of intermediaries, and socio-ecological context. This diversity has produced unsurprisingly mixed experiences, with many falling short of achieving the twin goals of environmental and social benefits and some causing adverse consequences. This study examines one rare PES case that has contributed both to forest conservation and to community livelihoods. In this study, community forest owners from four indigenous communities in the Mexican cloud forest evaluate their participation in ten years of a public PES program to support watershed stewardship. We argue that attention to indigenous sovereignty and selfdetermination in program implementation contributed to widely appreciated socioenvironmental benefits. Though many PES programs are implemented in indigenous communities, scholarly debates have rarely dealt directly with these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]